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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25374523">Let's Go Home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualdisaster221/pseuds/bisexualdisaster221'>bisexualdisaster221</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, DID Alters, Dark Fantasy, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Homesickness, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Loneliness, Original Fiction, Panic Attacks, Past Abuse, Past Character Death, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, also ruby didnt deserve anything, cloud is a quiet lonely bean and needs a hug, cloud is g a y for ruby, she was torn away from her home and her children and i want to hug her too</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 10:20:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,542</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25374523</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualdisaster221/pseuds/bisexualdisaster221</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby, a caretaker and co-host in a DID system, has had a role-change. Finding herself in a mysterious fantasy realm in the inner world, she must learn to come to terms with her new role - a helper to a suspiciously silent girl named Cloud, whose job is to ward off nightmares.</p>
<p>But it's not easy leaving your home and family behind.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Female Character/Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Let's Go Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Before you read, it should be noted that I do not have DID [dissociative identity disorder]. DID has been one of my special interests for about a year now, and I've always wanted to write about it. Please let me know if I'm misrepresenting DID in any way. This story is fictional and is in no way inspired by or supposed to resemble any DID system in the real world. I do not claim to know a lot about DID, but I have done a significant amount of research [I do know that research can't replace actually experiencing the disorder, but still]. Just know that I didn't write this because I wanted to romanticize DID, and I apologize if it comes off that way.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The very first thing that Cloud knew was that she had a purpose. She didn’t need a perilous journey to figure out what her purpose was - no, she knew from the beginning. She was there to guide the nightmares away.</p>
<p>She spent much of her days sleeping, nestled quietly in a fluffy bundle of blankets way up among the stars. She wandered the dreamscape, easing away the scary parts of the dreams to make way for lighter, happier moments. It was quite lonely. Nobody seemed to notice she was there, as if she were a ghost. Well, it would be fitting; her face was painted pale as snow, her hair just a shade off from pure white. Her eyes reminded her of the ice crystals she saw on the lake within the dreamscape. That lake appeared quite often.</p>
<p>Cloud couldn’t comprehend why the dreams were so terrifying sometimes. Sometimes she would enter the world and immediately be struck by a crashing tsunami of fear. The horrible energy seemed to dance around her, sinking through her pores and oozing into every inch of her body. She’d catch glimpses of horrible, traumatic scenes - a giant monster, looming overhead with aims to destroy everything that contained life - a man, bulky and with a patchy beard, his breath reeking of alcohol - a tiny girl, cowering in the corner of a musty basement, too frightened to make a noise. At times like these she’d valiantly fight against the monster, strike the man to the ground, or comfort the little girl until the scenery turned into a beautiful meadow.</p>
<p>She knew how to banish the darkness.</p>
<p>She didn’t know how to interact with the light.</p>
<p>Until she met her.</p>
<p>It had happened so quickly. One night, after Cloud had banished the darkness from sight, she’d taken to sitting on the shore of the lake, staring out over the distance at the snow-covered woods. Winter was a common theme among the good dreams, not that she had any troubles with it. She blended right in with the snow and frost.</p>
<p>“Are you okay?”</p>
<p>Cloud looked over, fully expecting to see the two children who always appeared to skate on the frozen lake. She was not expecting to be met with a girl, roughly her age, bending over her. Her ruby red eyes seemed to sparkle as she gazed at Cloud with concern.</p>
<p>Cloud blinked up at her, nodding slowly.</p>
<p>The girl looked unconvinced, but shrugged anyway. “Mind if I sit here with you?”</p>
<p>The white-haired girl nodded again, sliding over to seem more inviting. The other brushed away the snow, scoffing at the wetness of it. “I can make it disappear, if you’d like,” Cloud said quietly.</p>
<p>“Oh, so you do speak?” the girl grinned. A passing breeze blew her brown hair over her shoulder and into her mouth, making her sputter as she tugged it out.</p>
<p>Cloud giggled softly, waving a hand over the patch of land. The snow disappeared into the air, lost forever.</p>
<p>“Woah, that’s cool,” commented the girl, sitting next to her. “So, what’s your name?”</p>
<p>“Cloud. And you?”</p>
<p>“I’m Ruby.” A fitting name. “What brings you here?”</p>
<p>“I’m always here. I don’t know why, I just am.”</p>
<p>Ruby picked at a blade of grass, twirling it around her finger. “Always here, huh?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” Cloud said meekly as she looked away, “I exist to banish the bad dreams and bring the good. Why are you here?”</p>
<p>Ruby snorted. “You know, you talk awfully formal.”</p>
<p>“I’ve never known anything else,” Cloud shrugged.</p>
<p>The two sat in silence, looking out at the children skating on the lake. Cloud closed her eyes, taking in the fresh air and the calming breeze. </p>
<p>“I.. don’t know how I got here,” Ruby admitted, voice almost lost to the wind.</p>
<p>Cloud opened her eyes, peeking up through her lashes to look at the girl. She was quite beautiful, really. Her eyes complimented her rosy skin quite nicely, and her overcoat fit just right, revealing gentle curves that pulled her whole look together.</p>
<p>“Do you exist outside this world, then?”</p>
<p>Ruby grunted. “I guess. I don’t know, really. Some days I’m at home safe, and then it’s suddenly like I’m pushed to the front seat of a car and I’m in a body that doesn’t belong to me. It’s scary. I’ve never been here, though.”</p>
<p>	“What’s your home like?” Cloud asked.</p>
<p>Ruby perked up at the question. “Oh, it’s beautiful. I live with a lot of other people in a cottage, deep inside the woods. It’s mostly little kids, but there’s a decent amount of adults too. First there’s Artemis. She was there before I got there. She always looks like she hasn’t slept. Her hair is black and fades to dark pink at the tips. Oh, and there’s Yellow-”</p>
<p>Cloud closed her eyes, tuning out the words to focus on Ruby’s voice. The home she described sounded like an ideal place to live, a peaceful haven where she lived with her loved ones. Oh, she’d give anything to live in a place like that. Everyone who came to the dreamscape left at some point, so she had never bothered to bond with them. It was useless, she told herself, they all wound up leaving her in the end. Bitterly she thought back to a long time ago, when she had tried to make friends with G-</p>
<p>“Hey, are you listening?”</p>
<p>Cloud’s eyes snapped open. “Sorry. I spaced out.”</p>
<p>Ruby snorted. Upon inspection, Cloud could see the beginnings of tears glistening in her eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked hesitantly.</p>
<p>Ruby hugged her knees to her chest, staring out at the lake. “No,” she admitted quietly.</p>
<p>The two sat in silence.</p>
<p>“I just- what if I never get to see any of them again? I don’t know how to get back. I wanna see them again! I wanna hang out with them! I wanna go back to my room! I never asked to be here!!”</p>
<p>“Ruby-”</p>
<p>“No! You don’t understand! You live here, you don’t know any of them! I don’t belong here, I belong back at home-”</p>
<p>“Ruby!”</p>
<p>Ruby scrubbed her eyes furiously. “It’s not fair! I don’t want to be here! I’d take anything over being here!!”</p>
<p>“RUBY!”</p>
<p>“What?!”</p>
<p>Cloud pressed her lips together, placing a hand on Ruby’s knee. “You’re hyperventilating. You need to calm down.”</p>
<p>“H-how can I calm down??” Ruby sobbed, shoving her face into her knees. “I can’t!”</p>
<p>“Yes you can,” Cloud insisted, “breathe.”</p>
<p>Ruby wheezed in a breath, then another, and another. Her tears slowed down and she miserably wiped her face. “I’m sorry,” she muttered.</p>
<p>“It wasn’t your fault. You’re just scared.”</p>
<p>Ruby lifted her head, propping her chin on top of her knees. “I want to go home.”</p>
<p>“I know.”</p>
<p>“I don’t want to be here.”</p>
<p>“I know.”</p>
<p>She sniffled. “I want Artemis.”</p>
<p>“I know.”</p>
<p>Cloud and Ruby sat, neither speaking a word. Ruby’s soft sniffles were the only sounds that permeated through the air. Cloud turned, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling the distraught girl into her side.</p>
<p>“I don’t think you can go back.”</p>
<p>Ruby let out a sob. “I know.”</p>
<p>Cloud felt her lips twitch into a painful smile. “I’ve seen this happen before.”</p>
<p>Ruby turned. “Y-you have?”</p>
<p>She nodded. “Yes. About a year ago, a boy came here. He was lost and confused. I offered to help, but he refused. He kept screaming and screaming for someone, I don’t remember who. He refused to come with me.”</p>
<p>She fell silent.</p>
<p>“He was taken. Away. A monster grabbed him. I tried to save him but I was too late. By the time I vanquished the beast, his body was gone. Most likely he's dormant, or lost somewhere in the subconscious.”</p>
<p>“That’s awful,” Ruby sniffed.</p>
<p>Cloud pressed her lips together. “Yes, it was.”</p>
<p>Another silence fell over the two.</p>
<p>“So, I guess I’m stuck here now, huh.”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>Ruby choked out another sob. “What do I do now? I don’t have any way to survive here.”</p>
<p>“You could come with me.”</p>
<p>“But I don’t know how to fight all the stuff here. I’d be dead by the first night,” Ruby protested.</p>
<p>“No, you can’t fight right now, but I can teach you. And besides, I have a home. It’s nearby, and it’s safe.”</p>
<p>Ruby’s eyes welled up with tears. Cloud felt a pang in her chest. She reached up to wipe the wetness away. Those eyes shouldn’t look like that, she told herself, they’re too beautiful to have so much sadness in them.</p>
<p>“Really?” she whispered.</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>Ruby sniffed. “O-okay.”</p>
<p>Cloud let herself smile down at Ruby. “It’s going to be okay,” she found herself reassuring her.</p>
<p>Ruby’s lips turned up in a wobbly smile. Another tear rolled down her face.</p>
<p>“I know,” she said. “I know.”</p>
<p>“Good,” said Cloud, “I’m glad.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t okay right now, both knew, but in time it would be. Cloud looked down at the girl tucked into her side, heat rushing into her face as Ruby’s eyes locked on hers. She stood, grabbing Ruby’s hand to pull her up. They held on for longer than was probably necessary, but neither made the first move to pull away. “Come on,” she smiled, “let’s go home.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hope you enjoyed this vaguely-lesbian tale about two alters helping each other out. Please let me know if I'm misrepresenting DID in any way and I will try my best to fix anything you point out.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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